UCLA In the News January 15, 2016

“On every measure, film is a couple steps behind TV,” said Darnell Hunt, director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. “This is, unfortunately, a reflection of the academy itself. The academy is white and male, so we have a taste culture that’s only going to recognize certain types of projects.” (Also: KCRW-FM’s “Press Play,” Toronto Star and Huffington Post)

Michael Jerrett, chairman of the environmental health department at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that because of the limited testing done by SoCalGas early on, it is impossible to know for sure whether there was repeated exposure in parts of the community. He said he believes there is a “high probability” the eight-hour standard was violated. (Also: Washington Post)

That, at least, is the suggestion of a study just published in Scientific Reports by Li Zhongqiu of Nanjing University, in China, and Daniel Blumstein and Franck Courchamp, who both work at the University of California, Los Angeles…. When the sky was a thick soup of noxious smog, with an air-quality index of 500, pigeons returned home at an average speed of 68.2kph. By contrast, when the index value was zero and the air pure, the birds flew at only 55.6kph.

A labor professor at UCLA believes it will take more than that to turn Inglewood around. “It’s important to make sure that there’s affordability that the current residents can benefit from whatever economic advantages there are,” said UCLA’s Chris Tilly. Tilly believes the new complex will cause property values in the area to increase. That he says will drive up rents and force out people with lower incomes.

“We just found that, on a whole, all of California had more advanced cases than the average, statistically significant, not just a random difference,” said UCLA’s Dr. Avital Harari. “There were advanced cases scattered throughout the state. I still think there’s something environmental; we’re not sure what.”

UCLA’s Donald Shoup has shown that free or cheap parking doesn’t just increase commuter congestion, but snarls downtowns by encouraging drivers to circle incessantly in search of a free spot. And all that extra driving also increases pollution.

As trauma surgeons at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center struggled to stop the bleeding, the blood bank got to work… It took four surgery, six weeks in the hospital and 27 blood donors for Jorge to pull through. Jorge himself used to be a frequent donor, but says he never realized the impact. (Also: KNX-AM, KNBC-TV, KABC-TV and others)